V&A Dundee

The Victoria and Albert in London is one of the largest design museums in the world as well as being one of the longest established, founded way back in 1852.

Its new family member, V&A Dundee, is a baby in comparison, a project almost 10 years in the making, opened to the public in September 2018. Designed by award-winning Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (also charged with designing the Olympic Stadium for Tokyo 2020), the striking building in made up of curved concrete walls supporting 2,500 rough stone panels, set to replicate a Scottish cliff-face and resembling the shape of a ship. Sitting on the waterfront with the River Tay as its backdrop, it somehow manages to blend in and stand out all at once.

V&A Dundee houses examples of Scottish design from fashion to furniture; music fans will appreciate the inclusion of record sleeves designed by Glasgow’s David Band for Aztec Camera and Altered Images. For fans of another famous Glaswegian, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Oak Room has been painstakingly reconstructed as it would have been seen originally in Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms in the early 1900s.

Additionally, temporary exhibitions, events and activities will run throughout the year and there is a cafe, restauarant and a range of suitably aesthetically pleasing items available in the gift shop all on site. It will be interesting to see how the museum develops and hopefully brings new business and tourism alike to the area and its community.